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Turkey vows active role in Syria, better regional ties

Turkish prime minister said Ankara will play a more active role in Syria and repair its ties with regional powers.

21 Aug 2016 03:52 GMT

Yildirim said Turkey wants to repair its ties with Egypt, after relations soured over the ouster of president Morsi [Umit
Bektas/Reuters]

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim has vowed that Ankara will play a "more active" role in the next six months in efforts to end the five-year Syrian civil war and work towards normalising its relations with its neighbours in the Middle East.

Yildirim said in a news briefing on Saturday that Ankara would step up efforts to reduce "instability" in the region.

"We say the bloodshed needs to stop. Babies, children, innocent people should not die. That's why Turkey will be more active in trying to stop the danger getting worse in the next six months, compared with before," Yildirim told foreign reporters in Istanbul.

'No role to play in Syria's future'

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad can remain temporarily during a transition period as "he is one of the actors today no matter whether we like it or not," Yildirim said.

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But the premier stressed that Assad has "no role to play in Syria's future".

"We believe that the PKK, Daesh and Assad should not be in the future of Syria," he added, referring to the Syrian Kurds and the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant group (ISIL, also known as ISIS) in the war-torn country.

Yildirim said instead that Turkey, Iran, Russia and the United States must work towards a solution in Syria.

"That is our objective. We are not pessimistic. We have even left it late. Therefore, as Turkey, we will work more because the instability there pains us."

Turkey wants to 'repair ties' with old allies

As a result, it sought to work with Iran and Russia on Syria's future and solving the crisis.

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Although Russia and Iran are Assad's main allies which put them at loggerheads with Turkey, this month Erdogan met with Russian President Vladimir Putin while Tehran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif came to Ankara.

Prime Minister Yildirim told reportes on Saturday that Turkey wants to normalise relations with other old allies, like Israel and Egypt.

However, he sounded a note of caution that high-level relations would not be repaired overnight.

"We think we need to start from somewhere," he said.

Regional powerhouse Saudi Arabia, one of the main backers of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, is keen to see the two countries reconciled as it grows increasingly close to Turkey.

US is a 'strategic partner' not an 'enemy'

Yildirim also insisted that the United States was Turkey's "strategic partner, not our enemy" despite Ankara's anger at Washington for failing to extradite Fethullah Gulen, whom it blames for last month's failed coup.

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"There can be ups and downs in the two countries' relations [but] we need to remove elements that harm our relations," Yildirim told journalists in Istanbul, referring to the Pennsylvania-based cleric.

Ankara has for years accused Gulen of running a "parallel state" in Turkey and it blamed him for ordering the failed coup attempt of July 15.

Ankara had previously suggested that any failure to deliver Gulen would severely damage bilateral ties and Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said it was up to Washington to extradite him to prevent "anti-US feeling" in Turkey turning into "hate".